An e-mail I received today with a very important and pertinent question. It involves the inerrancy of Scripture. In short, this means that the Scriptures do not contain errors. I decided to answer the e-mail and share my response.

Pope-Leo-XIII-portrait-Hathi-TrustPope Leo XIII wrote, “For all the books that the Church receives as sacred and canonical are written wholly and entirely, with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Spirit. And so far is it from being possible that any error can coexist with inspiration, that inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with error but excludes and rejects it as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossible that God himself, the Supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true.” (Providentissimus Deus §40)

The Catechism defines Inerrancy as “The attribute of the books of Scripture whereby they faithfully and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to have confided through the Sacred Scriptures.”

Many see in this Catechism statement a compromise of traditional teaching. Some read this to mean that only things pertaining to our salvation are without error, but it is not inerrant where it touches on science, history or other tangible matters. In other words, the Bible is only inerrant on matters of faith and morals.

The e-mail went like this,

“[In debates I’ve had school] I maintained that Dei Verbum and the Church hold to Inerrancy, not limited inerrancy as a couple of theologian types have tried to argue me into. 

I thought you would have up-to-date material that would at least show my view is DEFENSIBLE. What do you recommend? I’ve read the Scott Hahn materials, Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth (which one theologian thought would move me to limited inerrancy), etc. 

Thanks, RB

I gave a short response and pointed RB to a very thorough and orthodox paper on inerrancy with argues for the full position taken by the Church without wavering until theologians challenged it in modern times.

I wrote,

the wooden rosary on the open Bible
the wooden rosary on the open Bible

I believe in the plenary inerrancy of scripture. I do not believe that Dei Verbum in any way weakens traditional and historic teaching of the Church. To do so would contradict the constant teaching of the Church and rationality.

If the Bible is written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, how can it have errors of any kind? God cannot lie or deceive or teach error.
If the Bible is not inerrant in areas that we can verify (science, history, etc.), how can we possibly trust it in areas we cannot verify (heaven, forgiveness of sins, Trinity, etc.)? If the Scriptures are riddled with errors regarding history that can be proved in error — how and why should we trust it about things we cannot verify.

I could write a whole treatise for you on this but I could not do better than this one I’m sharing with you entitled The Inerrancy of Scripture and the Second Vatican Council. written by Mark Joseph Zia in CatholicCulture.org. It is a good read and should clear up any doubts or confusion.

Don’t be bullied or intimidated into compromising on the full teaching of the Church. To do so is to lose everything. The Scriptures are the authoritative, inspired, infallible and inerrant word of God.

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